Barry Ritholtz: The Odds Of Fixing U.S. Infrastructure Just Got Better Good Luck with this. If I recall, Trump suggests $1.5 trillion for infrastructure, with $200 billion from Federal "sources" and remainder from state, local sources, as well as "private".
State and local..........okay, and where is this money arriving from.....?
A few years ago, Michigan had a proposal regarding gas tax to help rebuild Michigan roads. I know several hard core Republican, tax paying citizens who posted to their Facebook pages during this period, something to the effect of "Just say NO to higher taxes to repair the roads." I had, by chance; an opportunity to ask 2 of these folks "where did they expect these monies to arrive from to maintain/improve the roads?" Generally, they expected the monies to be appropriated from some other spending unit in the state budget. OK.
As to the ability of local governments to help fund infrastructure costs, another good luck.
Thousands of communities are already part of the FEMA, Safer Grant programs to help fund local police and fire units. Not enough local revenue, yes? I read an online report yesterday about one large community in Michigan closing a fire station and reducing staff by 1/3, as their 3rd Safer grant had been denied.
Reminds me of the "shovel ready" crap from Obama/Biden, too.
And the beat goes on.....
PRHSX: Is it time to trim holdings? FRA= full retirement age. Eagerly waiting. Could have done at 62, but did not want to get into ACA.
Medicare is available at age 65. No need to wait for FRA to avoid individual health insurance. COBRA would let you back up to 63.5, and some states (e.g.
Cal-COBRA) provide COBRA-type coverage for three
years. That could back you up all the way to 62.
PRHSX: Is it time to trim holdings? FRA= full retirement age. Eagerly waiting. Could have done at 62, but did not want to get into ACA. No way I am going to France. Not even getting out of Chicago...like it.
PRHSX 9.8% is in taxable (direct at TRP=7.7% since 2010 or so) and traditional IRA( 2.1% at vanguard since 3 years just before closing of fund). Actually instead of getting dividend, and paying regular tax, planning to use long term cap gains++soc security for the monthly expenses.
Trump Stock Rally Second Only To FDR @Maurice
And by the way FDR oversaw the two worst Depressions in the last 100 years.
What sort of nonsense are you spewing?
The Great Depression began in 1929 under Herbert Hoover, a pro-business, low-tax, anti-New Deal/anti-"socialist" Republican. Here is GDP Growth under Hoover from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis:
1930
-8.5%
1931
-6.4%
1932
-12.9%
Roosevelt was president from March 1933 through April 1945. The first part of the New Deal was passed midway through 1933. Here is GDP growth during Roosevelt's presidency:
1933
-1.3%
1934
+10.8%
1935
+8.9%
1936
+12.9%
1937
+5.1%
1938
-3.3%
1939
+8.0
1940
+8.8%
1941
+17.7
1942
+18.9%
1943
+17.0%
1944
+8.0%
1945
-1.0%
Note that the U.S. didn't enter the war till the end of 1941, and the war itself was another form of government spending, i.e., "socialist" fiscal stimulus to build weapons and hire massive amounts of soldiers.
Also, note that the one significant GDP downturn during Roosevelt's presidency occurred in 1938 after Roosevelt was pressured by a newly-elected Republican Congress to balance the budget and curb government spending, which he did.
FMC Strategic Value Fund liquidation @MFO Members: Way to go, very consistent, 100 percentile YTD-15
Years.
Regards,
Ted
FMC Strategic Value Fund liquidation As previously noted on this board, FMSVX is being liquidated next month.
I invested some money in this small cap value fund some years ago, probably because I read some positive comments here. It has been run by First Manhattan Co and I don't think it even had a ticker symbol for awhile. I was enchanted by the idea that this New York investment firm was running a small fund for its clients and whomever else wanted to join in.
Surely they knew what they were doing and things would go well.
They did for a little while.
I plead guilty to not paying attention to how it has done lately: but it's only up 1.74% for the last year, - 2.65% for the last three years and +3.16% for the past five years. I would have thought those numbers impossible in the booming market we've seen.
The fund made a large cap gains distribution in December, is making another one now (payable Feb 6, who knows how much??) and is maintaining a CONSTANT SHARE PRICE of $20.
I called today to see how the liquidation process works. I could cash in now (at 20), or wait until the mid-February final demise. One factor in the final distribution amount is the cost of carrying out the execution.
But there's no rational basis to make a decision! How can a fund which holds equities maintain a constant price?
Unless it's gone to all cash.
In which case they should tell me.
It really seems strange to distribute cap gains right before a liquidation.
Lesson to be learned -- PAY ATTENTION to your holdings.
I'll not buy anything again which is so far under the radar that information is hard to find.
At least I think I made a little profit on it.
David
$1M-VG, 2017 = Only $25.5K Income & Div.s @MikeM: What penalty? I said in the first post that I have no intention on touching the retirement accounts for several
years! :P
Pimco D Shares to convert to A Shares I paid a load to buy Oppenheimer’s new fangled commodities fund back in ‘96 or ‘97. It did very well for several years (double digit gains) before crashing and burning. Now it’s long since eliminated from their store of funds. I’m left with some Class A shares there spread out currently among 5 different funds (kind of like a breakfast buffet at a mid-priced hotel chain) - a little bit of everything. I can’t recommend the company or its funds. But I cling to my A shares 20+ years after buying them direct. I’ll say one thing about Oppenheimer: They do have some unique fund offerings in areas many companies don’t care (or dare) to venture into. Just one perspective. FWIW.
I used to suggest that people don't move money out of load families once they've paid the load. It's a sunk cost; you might as well get something out of it (the ability to do exchanges at NAV). But as I noted above, many families, including Oppenheimer, are making (most of) their front end load funds available NTF through supermarkets.
Unless their unique offerings are not available NTF elsewhere, you might consider transferring your holdings to a brokerage for convenience. Not that you need to, but with the NTF option, a compelling reason to stay put (access to A shares without a new load) has disappeared.
Pimco D Shares to convert to A Shares I paid a load to buy Oppenheimer’s new fangled commodities fund back in ‘96 or ‘97. It did very well for several years (double digit gains) before crashing and burning. Now it’s long since eliminated from their store of funds. I’m left with some Class A shares there spread out currently among 5 different funds (kind of like a breakfast buffet at a mid-priced hotel chain) - a little bit of everything. I can’t recommend the company or its funds. But I cling to my A shares 20+ years after buying them direct. I’ll say one thing about Oppenheimer: They do have some unique fund offerings in areas many companies don’t care (or dare) to venture into. Just one perspective. FWIW.
$1M-VG, 2017 = Only $25.5K Income & Div.s If one separates from service in the year one turns 55 (even if before one's birthday), then one can tap employer-plan (government Thrift Savings Plan) without penalty.
Pretty much all tax sheltered plans (IRAs, 401(k)s, etc.) can be tapped without penalty so long as one takes "substantially equal periodic payments" until the later of age 59.5 or five
years. Section 72(t) payments.
Here's the TSP description of both options and more (annuitization):
http://www.wifle.org/newsletters/december2007/accessingTSPwithnopenalty.pdf
Illinois Ponders Pension-Fund Moonshot: A $107 Billion Bond Sale Without even reading the link, I agree with you about Ill. (perhaps an apt abbreviation). When BobC suggested NEARX, I expressed concern about its fairly high percentage of Illinois bonds. He felt that the manager was good at monitoring risk, and I do see that the Illinois holdings have been reduced to 4.34% as of the latest semiannual report.
(Performance has been another story; over the past three years, the supposedly more conservative VMLUX has done better, but I digress.)
$1M-VG, 2017 = Only $25.5K Income & Div.s I'm early-mid 50s, considering an early out offer. At the moment I don't need that much, but that won't last forever and I want to plan on needing more—say, a total income of about $3-3500/mo before taxes—and just save/invest the excess (which my current status seems to support)—$325K of my 401K is parked in the federal gov. MM "TSP G Fund", waiting for the inevitable market crash (well, at least a 30-40% haircut...though given the runup in the last year, maybe more like 50-60%! :)
Plus, in 4-5 years I will be eligible for a pre-SS pension supplement of about 1200mo/14,400yr, which would last until I'm 62 and SS kicks in (again, which I don't plan on touching until I'm 67-70, unless life shortening/defining chronic/terminal health conditions become an issue).
Berwyn Fund to be reorganized I sold my positions in Berwyn and the income fund when Chartwell acquired the Berwyn family a couple of years ago. It was time to take my gains (or losses) and walk away.
Slumbering Bear Holds A Lot Of Answers
Balanced Fund Investing: Only Half The Freak Out During A Stock Market Slide: (VWELX) FYI: Any time the stock market reaches all-time highs, the contributing factors are varied and their influences are impossible to measure. What we do know is that American companies for several
years now have enjoyed steadily increasing profits, which are finally resulting in lower unemployment figures.
Offsetting the exhilarating “high” we feel these days should be the question, “What’s next?” For many, the answer is to mix some bonds into the portfolio. While this would seem to make sense in this day and age, the concept developed only as late as 1929. Walter Morgan, a young accountant for wealthy individuals, felt that something better than timing the market would offer a better mousetrap for people wanting to benefit from strong markets while, at the same time, limiting their downside.
Regards,
Ted
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/01/25/balanced-fund-investing-only-half-the-freak-out-during-a-stock-market-slide/M* Snapshot VWELX:
http://www.morningstar.com/funds/xnas/vwelx/quote.htmlLipper Snapshot VWELX:
https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/fund/vwelxVEWLX Is Ranked #3 In The (50/70 Equity)) Fund Category By U.S. News & World Report:
https://money.usnews.com/funds/mutual-funds/allocation-50-to-70-equity/vanguard-wellington-fund/vwelx
Super Bowl LII Indicator Except for last year, all the other Pats years the market was flat or down.
